Archive for April, 2010

The First Librarian blog (graciously hosted by bookish37) recently released its official review of Wild West 2.0 (Amazon). The review highlighted how useful Wild West 2.0 can be for librarians and other professionals. In fact, the author revealed that she already had to recommend the book!

Librarians who are looking for work may want to use the information outlined to check up on their online reputation–and I know for a fact that libraries are checking out their applicants online–and they may need to use it to defend the online reputation of their library. Sadly, only about an hour after finishing this book, I did have to recommend it to a client who was facing personal attacks online; though I was sorry about the attacks, I was glad to be able to give the person a resource to use so they could understand the nature of the attacks and how to resist them effectively.

Of course, the book is also useful for people who have not yet faced online attacks; the book is a helpful guide to protect your reputation before and after online attacks. Get your copy and recommend one to a friend who might face online attacks.

We’re proud to announce that getAbstract, a leading business book summary service, has reviewed Wild West 2.0 and given it 8 of 10 stars. The service called Wild West 2.0 “a solid, useful manual on safeguarding your good name online.” The company “recommends it to anyone who has to fight back against online slurs, and to anyone who has a good reputation and wants to keep it.”

Here is their full unedited review:

Although the Internet is the greatest information resource and connectivity medium the world has ever seen, it is still remarkably wild and woolly. Millions of shady characters inhabit it, lurking to steal your shirt and sell it back to you at twice the original price. Some online con artists set up phony rating sites where they publish scathing reviews of companies’ products and then extort heavy fees from those firms to remove the negative reviews. Malevolent liars use the Internet anonymously to ruin people’s reputations or corporations’ standings with blog attacks and negative postings. Reputation management consultants Michael Fertik and David Thompson examine these fraudulent activities and more in this disturbing but timely book, and they outline steps you can take to protect your online reputation or the good name of your business. Though the book is somewhat repetitive, Fertik and Thompson have created a solid, useful manual on safeguarding your good name online. getAbstract recommends it to anyone who has to fight back against online slurs, and to anyone who has a good reputation and wants to keep it.

The positive buzz for the Wild West 2.0 book continues. Stay tuned for more reviews and updates.

Publishers Weekly recently reviewed Wild West 2.0 and gave it glowing praise: “Full of invaluable information that readers will be very grateful to have when they need it, this book explains the rules and provides the tools for overcoming online attacks and regaining a positive reputation.”

Wild West 2.0: How to Protect and Restore Your Online Reputation on the Untamed Social Frontier Michael Fertik and David Thompson. Amacom, $24.95 (272p) ISBN 978-0-814-41509-2

Fertik and Thompson, respectively CEO and chief privacy officer at ReputationDefender, tackle online defamation, which can cause a company significant damage with only a few mouse clicks. The good news is that if you are prepared, you can defend your company and make sure that its online image is a true reflection of reality. Likening the Internet to the new frontier of the American Wild West, the authors explore the challenges of being in a world that is instant, permanent, and anonymous. They provide valuable insight into the quandary of “Google Truth,” why people attack each other online, and the different types of Internet attacks. Of particular usefulness are the chapters on how to measure this type of damage, including how to do an online reputation audit. They stress the benefits of a proactive defense and show how to recover after the damage has been done. Full of invaluable information that readers will be very grateful to have when they need it, this book explains the rules and provides the tools for overcoming online attacks and regaining a positive reputation. (June)